“I fell in love with the instant bridge between art and psychology. Being an artist or designer was not going to be in my future, but I continued to have a desire to create that was not satisfied through my work as a therapist.” —Daniel Soprano, curator

Stephen Westfall channeling birds in his geometric abstraction, Asako Tabata reflecting on her mother’s passing through paintings, Emily Janowick growing corn as an homage to her Kentucky childhood, and more to see this week in New York City.

The Wound Man might strike contemporary viewers as a gruesome spectacle, an archaic precursor to the “Saw” movies, or the revenge fantasy of some jilted ex. But the figure is something else altogether, offering reassurance to patients coping with ailments of their own.

A statue of Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands mysteriously appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC, billed as a cheeky tribute to the pair’s chummy alliance in recognition of Friendship Month.

Throughout world history, cats have been revered as sacred animals, doted on as devoted companions, and immortalized in works of art. Now, these four-legged introverts are featured in a 10-day group exhibition punnily titled “Magnum O-Pspsps.”

“Glass reflects light, it transmits light, and it absorbs light, all at the same time. All of that made glass an improbable and mysterious medium for me to play with.” —Larry Bell

“I’m working to break the stereotype that African masks are ‘primitive.’ They should be seen as fine art, as high art, and Burning Man is a stage to show that.” —Zulu Heru

“As I painted, I wondered — do the living wait for the bones, or do those who have passed on wait for us?” —Asako Tabata

Have you encountered an exhibition playlist in the wild? “Sixties Surreal” at the Whitney –and its accompanying playlist — pays homage to the era’s music that delved into the depths of the psyche.

A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that Trump’s ban on “gender ideology” in the NEA’s grant review process violates the First Amendment.

The New College of Florida, which has undergone a right-wing transformation led by Governor Ron DeSantis in recent years, said it will commission a statue honoring Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“I was surrounded by really strong Black women and always in awe at their abilities to raise families and to nourish them and to work — they all were workers — and then at the same time, to just bring beauty into the world as artists or as craftpersons.” —Alison Saar

The years before Michelangelo’s death were some of his most productive and celebrated. He passed at 88, a long life even by today’s standards. Did the extra years give him special skills or insights? Art historian Larry Silver would say so.

The three rows of cornstalks currently growing in Kate Werble Gallery convey both heartache and hope, though not for reasons you might expect.

Theaster Gates, whose nurturing stories are more relevant than ever; Destyni “Desi” Swoope, who reminds us that community is immutable; outsider art at Sawhorse and Shanghai Seminary, and more to see in Chicago this fall.

A 61-year-old man was killed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, last week while delivery crews were unloading a racecar painted by Andy Warhol.

Karen Leader, a tenured associate professor of Art History at Florida Atlantic University, was placed on administrative leave over her social media posts criticizing Charlie Kirk’s political viewpoints.

The logic of Stephen Westfall’s art is internal. There’s no formula to his color choices. Like the jazz music that inspires his work, he achieves his desire to improvise.

What does socialism look like when earnestly perpetuated by extraordinarily wealthy benefactors sorely lacking in self-awareness? One answer might be found in a Neo-Impressionism show at London’s National Gallery.

Showing others the way towards self-preservation during a military dictatorship, as Lygia Clark did for many, is nothing if not a political act. Packaging it as art lends her cover in an environment where any political exposure can be dangerous.

Looking for art books to add to your fall reading list? Check out a Louise Bourgeois biography, “Native Visual Sovereignty,” “Robert Rauschenberg’s New York,” Nigerian diasporic women’s art, and more in this season’s recommendations from Hyperallergic.

Amid a profusion of anti-immigrant sentiment in national politics, a New York City cathedral is taking a stand for the humanity of immigrants in the form of the largest artwork ever commissioned for the Neo-Gothic landmark.

Emerging, mid-career, late-career: the art world tosses these categories around as if they were neutral descriptors. In reality, they’re elastic, inconsistently applied, and deeply entangled with assumptions that conflate age with career stage.

Clio Art Fair has been able to stay small after more than a decade in operation. But when you walk into the Chelsea art show, it doesn’t feel that way.

For over a decade, Superchief Gallery has been a cornerstone of LA’s underground scene. Despite its role as an experimental hub, mounting financial challenges in recent years have put the space at risk of closing.

A new book about Ruth Asawa and her artist-mother community reminds us that taking care of children and making art — be it public art, community work, with children, or for children — are radical acts of parenting and anti-totalitarian making.

Agnes “Aggie” Gund saw the arts as a powerful way to combat social injustice and education inequity. A staunch advocate and major art collector, Gund was known for her philanthropic endeavors that bolstered underrepresented artists and underserved communities.

A Moscow court has sentenced five members of the exiled feminist art collective Pussy Riot to prison on charges relating to anti-war protest and performances critical of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

In this week’s A View From The Easel, artists bring their beloved pets into the studio and make work inspired by the environments they inhabit, both natural and built.

Building La Sagrada Família, Ta-Nehisi Coates on political violence and censorship, Studio Museum in Harlem’s reopening, and more in this week’s Required Reading.

One of Brooklyn’s most iconic artist studio buildings is in a precarious state after a five-alarm fire ravaged the 155-year-old warehouse in Red Hook.

When Harriet Tubman led 300 Black soldiers up the Combahee River, she became the first woman in US history to help a major military operation, and the leader of the largest rebellion of enslaved people in the nation. A new exhibition celebrates her courage without over-mythologizing her.

From African botanical pigments to Mexican-American altar-making, this year’s Craft Archive Fellows are studying underrepresented craft histories of the US. Keep an eye out for their research, to be published on Hyperallergic in 2026!

After a long, rainy summer, the Bay Area art scene is beginning to thaw out with a celebration of local Filipino artists, the newly renovated Museum of the African Diaspora, and Suzanne Jackson’s diaphanous hanging paintings.

This year’s equinox arrives during a turbulent eclipse season, as we oscillate between cold and hot shortly before the official transition into autumn.

“I work on a painting until something magical happens. Until it becomes something outside of myself, a new vision ... You lose a kind of control, but you gain something else.” —Emily Mason

At least four protesters were arrested at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which houses a surveillance drone manufacturer for the Israeli military under the guise of a “Fine Art/Photography” business.

“The Siren” — the political satire newspaper led by artists Coco Fusco, Noah Fischer, and Pablo Helguera — is back with its third issue, examining the many facets of the ongoing authoritarian assault on the nation.

Silicon Valley’s tech barons have predicted that AI will raise unemployment to 10 to 20% within the next five years. But the advancement of machine learning may not be inevitable. And some artists are hopeful that they can still stop it.

Man Ray at The Met, Flora Yukhnovich’s take on famous Rococo paintings at the Frick, Ufuoma Essi’s films at MoMA, and more to see this week in New York.

Lisa Corinne Davis’s paradoxical paintings speak to our age of simultaneous information overload and disparity, where the gap between language and meaning, and rich and poor, increases by the hour.

Man Ray’s work stands up tremendously well against the history of photography writ large — he doesn’t need The Met to bolster his brand.

Move over, Gary the Snail. There’s a new gastropod in town, and its name is “Anauchen picasso” (like the painter) due to its defined, swirled shell that evokes early 20th-century Cubism.

What do the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Stevie Wonder have in common? They’re all clues in our mini crossword this month!

LA Louver will close its space this fall and transition to focus on private art dealing and consulting. The gallery plans to donate its archive and library to the Huntington library in San Marino.

Activists are determined to spoil Donald Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom this week — one Jeffrey Epstein photo at a time.

System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian’s paintings evoke a deep emotional longing that can be hard to describe. But his works come alive in unexpected ways when accompanied by music he composed especially for them.

On the cusp of pumpkin spice season, the Frick has unveiled an installation by Flora Yukhnovich that responds to François Boucher’s “The Four Seasons” with a Rococo exuberance that asserts its place in our current moment.

While it might at first seem a French nationalist enterprise, this year’s Rencontres d’Arles photography festival is, in fact, a vivacious call to rethink photography as a medium in constant renewal.

Vincent van Gogh’s life as an artist had the most faltering and rudimentary of beginnings in 1880. Christianity had failed him. What next then? Art?